As things are quiet, I was musing on what my Desert Island Disks would
be, and also, what are my best recordings that I use for equipment
evaluation.

For those not familiar with Desert Island Disks, this is a very
long-running series on BBC radio, which supposes you're shipwrecked on a
desert island with no hope of rescue, and you have to choose those 8
recordings (and only 8)to take with you.

Here are mine in no particular order, what are yours:-

1. Julie London - At home / Around Midnight. Cheating slightly, as this
is a single CD with two albums on it.

2. Cream - Reunion at the Royal Albert Hall, May 2005. As good as ever.
Jack Bruce's voice is as powerful as ever was, Clapton has slowed down
only very slightly. Ginger Baker also on-form.

3. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue. What can I say....

4. Mozart Clarinet Concerto. Hogwood/Pay. A better recording but not
quite so musically satisfying is the Musical Fidelity give-away CD of
Robert Bailey conducting Antony Michaelson soloist.

5. Beethoven, Symphony No 9. London Classical Players/Norrington. This
recording encapsulates for me everything Beethoven did before. As I
can't take more than the 8 records, this one will have to do.

6*. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending. Musically I prefer the old
Boult/Bean recording, but it is hissy and has horrible modulation noise
on it. For a good modern version, the BBCSO Davis/Little recording is
excellent, and Tasmin Little does a pretty good job of the solo.

7. Elgar, Cello Concerto Barbirolli/Du Pre. I have other versions of the
Cello concerto, but none comes close.

8. Eric Clapton - Just One Night. Recorded live in Japan. Clapton at his
best, and an excellent recording.

* If I could take only one record, this would be it.


Best Recordings, again in no particular order.

1. Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman. Solo voice with sparse
accompaniment. Probably the best recording I have. Difficult to
categorise this, vaguely pop, vaguely jazz, just nice songs.

2. Jazz at the Pawnshop. Vol 1 (and 2 and 3) Live Jazz recorded in a
club in Stockholm, simply miked and mixed to stereo on site. Recorded on
a Nagra stereo recorder. Volume 1 is probably the best vinyl I've ever
heard. Vols 2 and 3 were released later, possibly not the best
musically, (certainly by Vol 3) but all three wonderfully recorded.

3. Valerie Joyce - New York Blue. A naturally recorded Chesky CD, with a
most sultry-voiced Japanese-American Jazz singer. The voice and the
picture of the singer just don't match, but listen to what she does with
Jimmy Hendrix's Little Wing.

4. Jim Tomlinson - The Lyric. British jazz saxophonist Tomlinson with a
selection of his own tunes and standards sung by Stacey Kent.

5. Willie DeVille - Assassin of Love from the album "Miracle" Marc
Knopfler's guitar and deVille's voice. Good test of stereo, bass and
mid-range coloration.

6. Goldfrapp - Black Cherry but any of their albums will do.
Synthesiser pop, but with some really hefty bass. Tracks to set up
subwoofers to. Also very clean vocals.

7. Tierney Sutton - Dancing in the Dark. Jazz standards cleanly
recorded. Very natural sounding.

8. Hildegard of Bingen - A Feather on the Breath of God. Sublime music
(almost made my DID list above)recorded superbly. Some acapella, some
with medieval accompaniment, all wonderful.

All the above are on CD in my case, as I want the cleanest source for
system evaluation. For vinyl, I use a variety of test records from the
'70s, Willie DeVille's "Miracle" and several Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson
and Julie London LPs.

Lets see your lists.

S.